Penn or Northwestern. AND how 'campusy' is the lifestyle at Penn

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Hi, I just learnt I'd been accepted as an international transfer student to Penn coming from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Having pretty much forgotten I'd applied (since i was certain I wouldn't get it) I'd already decided to attend Northwestern. But obviously this is a chance I cannot easily pass up.</p>

<p>So, given that i want to study mainly Political Science and Economics, what do you recommend I do?</p>

<p>Secondly, I'm very interested in attending a school that has atleast a relatively 'campusy' for want of a better term environment. I turned down NYU largely because i felt it was too disjointed and unorthodox. UofAuckland is similar and It's one of the main reasons I want to leave here. So what is the campus lifestyle structure like there?</p>

2

<p>plenty of people never really leave campus during the week, if that's what you mean</p>

<p>the campus isn't disjointed - still in a city, but when you're in the heart of campus it's pretty awesome</p>

3

<p>Come here. For an urban school, Penn has a VERY strong campus-y feel. It's nothing like NYU. And Penn is better for what you want to study.</p>

4

<p>Everything at Penn is on one campus unlike lots of schools, including NU. I think the med school and business school are in downtown Chicago while the rest of the school is in Evanston (which isn't too far from downtown). </p>

<p>Penn has the best of both worlds having one campus for everything and a pretty "campusy" feel while still being 20-30 blocks (shot trolley ride or 10-15$ cab ride) from the heart of downtown Philly.</p>

5

<p>hmmm.... How are my chances at housing as a transfer? I made a call to inquire, but the woman on the other line was masterful at avoiding giving actual answers to questions. Housing is very important to me, both because coming from so far away organizing anything off campus would be very difficult, but also because I'm not particularly interested in being out of the campus lifestyle. </p>

<p>Also, anything you guys can say about the Pol Sci and Econ?</p>

6

<p>My friend transfered last year and was able to get housing in a college house. She was placed into a dorm with majority freshman, but was able to make friends through other ways like her sorority.</p>

7

<p>Penn's Econ department is top-notch--one of the top 10 in the country. But at Penn, you also have the advantage of being able to take courses at the Wharton School, the #1 undergraduate business program in the country, and probably the world. With Wharton's Finance, Management, etc. courses, this can give you a perspective you can't get with just Economics courses. And you can do this while still being an Econ or Political Science (or both) major in the College of Arts and Sciences.</p>

<p>Penn's Political Science department is not as eminent as its Econ department--although it is one of the top 30 or so departments in the country. However, Penn is making a concerted effort to improve the standing of its Political Science department through aggressive faculty recruitment, etc. (Penn's president, Amy Gutmann, is a nationally prominent political scientist, herself).</p>

<p>But you probably won't just be taking Econ and Political Science courses, and many other of Penn's liberal arts departments are ranked in the top 10 or top 20 in the country (English, History, Anthropology, Linguistics, Music, Religion, etc.). Plus, as I said, you'd have the benefit of being able to take some Wharton courses.</p>

<p>As Venkat89 pointed out, Penn's campus really provides the best of both worlds. Much of the campus is closed off from city streets, and contains shaded walkways, greens, plazas, and courtyards that really give it a kind of cloistered feel. However, only 20 or so blocks away is the hustle and bustle of Center City, with the vast array of cultural, historical, dining, entertainment, and nightlife attractions and amenities it has to offer.</p>

8

<p>Everything said here is true, but the context is that Penn is much more urban and less campus-y than Northwestern. Penn is essentially adjacent to Center City Philadelphia -- just across the river, a 20-minute walk or 5-minute trolley ride. Big streets with lots of traffic run through the campus (although there are parts that are closed off to cars). There is lots of student housing off-campus but an easy walk away. It's nothing like NYU, where there is no campus per se, just Greenwich Village, and everyone is living in high-rise apartments. At Penn, there is a campus, and only some students are living in high-rise apartments. Some live in more traditional dorms, and lots live in shabby houses or apartments carved out of houses in the surrounding community. But it's still very urban, and very intermingled with the city.</p>

<p>Northwestern is seven or eight miles from downtown Chicago: 30-40 minutes on the train or el. It's in a fairly wealthy suburb just across the city line from a fairly wealthy neighborhood in the city. It has a very defined, traditional campus.</p>

<p>There are lots of reasons to choose one or the other -- they are both strong, great universities. If you were deciding on which had the prettier campus alone, you would probably choose Northwestern. But that's not such an intelligent way to choose a university.</p>

9

<p>I'm not so much worried about being in a city or not. What i guess I'm more specifically concerned with is whether or not I'm liable to wind up isolated at Penn, or whether it will be relatively easy to get involved in the community and be socially engaged.</p>

10

<p>there are so many activities / events going on every day that the only way you can be isolated is if you keep to yourself all the time...</p>

11

<p>hmmm... How many people live on campus after freshman year?</p>

12

<p>Well, the university has dorm spots for slightly more than 50% of the undergraduates, and essentially all freshmen live in dorms. So . . . no more than about 1/3 of non-freshmen live in dorms. Some significant number of people live in on-campus fraternity houses. Still, something like half of upperclassmen will be off campus. </p>

<p>Penn is NOT a "commuter school", however. The vast majority of undergraduates living off campus are living in the areas immediately adjacent to the campus, west or east (just across the river). Usually within a mile of the campus. They spend most of their time there. The campus doesn't clear out at night, or anything like that, and it remains the center of students' social lives as well as their academic ones.</p>

13

<p>Actually about 1/2 of non-freshmen live in dorms. 64% of Penn students live on campus (including frat houses, but that could only be a few hundred people).</p>

14

<p>^ That's right. Per collegeboard.com, 64% of all undergrads and 99% of all freshmen at Penn live on campus:</p>

<p>College</a> Search - University of Pennsylvania - Penn - Housing & Campus Life</p>

<p>With 2,385 freshmen and 7,302 non-freshmen, that would mean that 6200 undergrads live on campus, consisting of 2361 freshmen (99% of all freshmen) and 3,839 non-freshmen (53% of all non-freshmen):</p>

<p>College</a> Search - University of Pennsylvania - Penn - At a Glance</p>

<p>Also, as JHS points out, the vast majority of non-freshmen who live off-campus live in an area immediately adjacent to campus, generally within a few blocks of campus. Further, Penn recently embarked on a program to have "private dorms" built on university-owned land, to consolidate off-campus student residences even closer to campus. An example of this is The Radian, which is literally across the street from campus, will house 500 students, and will open this coming fall:</p>

<p>PennConnects</a> : <em>—</em>Radian Overview</p>

15

<p>I am an alum of both places. Both are great places and each has a great campus. I take issue with JHS's statement that Northwestern has a prettier campus. Now if you put enough weight on what things look like outside the boundary of the actual campus then of course Northwestern wins. Lake Michigan and North Shore Chicago rich people houses > slums in West Philly. But if you just look at the campus itself, I think Penn wins. (And since undergrads spend 97 percent of their life in the campus bubble, that is probalbly more important.) Northwestern does not have the equivalaent of Locust walk; Penn's campus is simply more vibrant. Penn's buildings are way better too: the Quad>any NU dorm, College Hall>Univ. Hall, statute of Ben Franklin > crummy painted rock at NU. Of course what the campus looks like should be a negligible role in a college decision. But Penn and Northwestern are extremely similar in the crucial variables, both outstanding schools in the next tier below HYPS. They have may similarities socially: virtually all juniors and seniors live off campus; fraterities and sororities play a significant, but not overly significant, role in both places; Penn is slightly bigger but in the scheme of things they are the same size, both places are full of premeds and prelaws, etc. So for many people it would be a coin flip about which place to go. If it really comes down to a coin flip and your looking for campus feel to be the tiebreaker, pick Penn.</p>